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Rockets 142, Timberwolves 130 - Never Stop Shooting

The Houston Rockets are doing everything they can to break this whole damn thing in half. They never stop shooting, never stop scoring, and never look back. If they had looked back, they may have seen a team score 130 points, a ludicrous number that would have resulted in a win in ninety-nine percent of cases. Unfortunately for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Rockets are that one in a hundred. Houston is testing the tensile strength of all that we understand about the NBA, and they're having a damn good time doing it.The best way to win a basketball game is to score more points than the opponent. Attempted 58 threes? Check. Make 39% of them? Double check. Shoot 42 free throws? You'd better check that box off. Scoring 142 points in regulation takes a complete lack of conscience, and this Rockets team has less than ever. Lou Williams was the worst three point shooter of the night for Houston, hitting only 2 of his 7 tries. Even he never stopped shooting.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, of course, went ahead and shot, too. When in Rome, go ahead and score 130. They were, however, a lot more timid about their threes. They shot a comparatively paltry 26 of them and only hit 9. My advanced math training allows me to say, with some confidence, that Houston's 22 made threes means more points. The Timberwolves also obliged by giving up 23 turnovers to Houston's 13. Rockets snagged 15 steals, and that was a large reason for all those shots and all those points. Both teams took 94 shots. Never stop shooting. Actually, it's more like never stop shooting threes.

The game truly began when Ryan Anderson drove into the lane for an uncharacteristic dunk. The rest of the team piled on at this point and never really let up. Harden's stat line was impressive for an NBA player, but his night was a little underwhelming for a James Harden: 24 points on 6-15 shooting, including 5-11 from deep, 5 boards, 10 assists, 7 turnovers, 2 steals. He helped seal the game down the stretch, preventing one last Wolves rally, but took a while to get there.

The rest of the team divided the load fairly evenly. Eight Rockets scored in double figures, only Harden above 20. Nobody shot more than 15 times. ON a night when the Rockets had several sloppy plays and let the Wolves almost catch up multiple times, their three point shooting was enough to see them through the night. It wasn't pretty, but it was A LOT, and it was the sort of win they're built to manufacture.

The Rockets are going to drop some 130+ point games in the playoffs. If they drop them against the right teams, they might make it pretty far. If they make it far enough, they might just take apart the entire NBA. Nobody is supposed to be able to win this many games by scoring this many points and giving up this many on defense. Maybe one day everyone will play like the Rockets, and the league will finally snap in half. Until then, never stop shooting.

INCOMING GAME BALL

Every game has its ball, and this time the illustrious award goes to Ryan Anderson for actually dunking in a real live NBA game. Everybody got to shine in this game, but for one brief moment Ryan Anderson became a supernova, shining brighter than all the stars combined. If he ever dunks in a game ever again, I will probably perish. Thank you, Ryno.

He, as well as every other Houston Rocket, will keep up their assault on decency. They will never stop shooting, and neither should you.